magic in words (secret names, rituals and spells)

There are so many ways words are magic. Words have power to communicate a feeling, to influence others feelings. They can be sung or spoken or written or shouted or whispered and each way they carry a little different power. Words can open or close doors for you and words are a large part of any relationship.

Whats more your words have value. Yes yours! Your voice is what maters. I am going somewhere with this I promise. What I am trying to get to is two things that I have seen floating around the net lately. The first is the magic name of Goddess/God. Like if you’re a real witch and you read the right book or talk to the right teacher they will give you the magic name and all your dreams and wishes will come true because you have the right name to ask for them.

The second is similar in that we are looking for someone else to fulfill our needs and it is what is the “right” way to do a full moon ritual or Sabbat or healing or what have you. We need to know the spell or sometimes it is even less noticeable and we want to know if there is a spell that does x.

My overall rant is centered around the following idea. The power is in you. You do not need others to tell you how to act or what to say. You need to stop, think and feel. You will come up with the right answer. This is sometimes hard for us as we are used to being told how to do things. That is the blessing and the complicated part of a pagan path. There is no one book or one way. It is up to each to follow their heart and mind to the correct path for them.

Clearly we can still learn from each other. I am a huge fan of learning from others. If I wasn’t I would not of come up with a blog party that is all about learning from others. I have had, and do have, many teachers. I love to read books and honestly it’s not like I’m going to teach myself quantum physics, I need someone else to help teach me. That said at the end of the day I take what I have learned and think about it, meditate and see how I feel about things. It is a combination of learning and of critical thinking, feeling or gut instinct that guides me. I do not read a book and say ah ha this is the only way I must be like this person to be a real witch. You are you and you are powerful just as you are.

So lets talk about those specific examples from above. The real name thing. You may or may not have a patron Deity. Should you have one they will let you know what name they want you to call them. They will let you know a myriad of things and you can choose to follow the requests or not. The way you find this out is not by seeking out the name they told someone else but by strengthening your relationship with the Divine.

The second thing was the right words for a ritual. There are some great published rituals out there. There are some really bad ones too. You must sift through this and use what feels right to you. Or forego it altogether and write you own. Most rituals follow a set pattern or as I call it a recipe. I wrote about the one I follow here. What I really want to stress is that it must be your own in someway. For example myself. I am a rather casual person. When people are trying to talk in old English it makes me thing I’m at a Ren fair instead of a circle. I prefer plain speak and the voice I use in my rituals is pretty much the same voice I use for everything else including this blog. straight forward to the point and not too much flowery. That doesn’t mean that your rituals should be like that. If you are a poetic person then your rituals should reflect that. It should be in your voice

last but not least spells. In short yes there is a spell for that. What ever that is. Should you do magic for it is the question. I answer that question by asking myself What else can I/ should I do for this issue? Is it for me or someone else? Do I have their permission? Will it harm none? If I can or should do something else about my issue I do that first. If I still think a spell could help I do it along with the other mundane items. Say I want a spell for a new job. I may do a spell for it, but I am also going to work on polishing up my resume. Spells are not an excuse for lazy. You cannot say I did a spell so I don’t have to do the work. If the spell is not for me say it is a healing spell do I have said parties permission? If not theirs because they are unable to due to say coma do I have next of kin permission? If not don’t do it. Will it harm none? well this one is debated over and over, though I am unsure why. People say i’m not Wiccan I don’t have to live by that law. guess what you do. Natural laws are not some thing you can choose to abide by or not. Some people have tried to skirt the issue by saying I am just wishing on them what they did to me or my friend. no dice my friend. To do harm to someone is to break a natural law and you will be taking the negative energy in yourself in order to put it out on someone else. You can think you are as big and bad and dark as you want but you will inevitably be unhappy with the situation you choose to create if you are choosing to harm someone else. No matter what you want to say to explain it away or make it ok it will come back to bite you, and you wont like it.

OK lecture over. So we have answered our questions and decided yes a spell would be good here. Again use your voice and your skills, and write a spell. Remember, speaking from the heart will always work.

“Once, I can’t remember, I was long ago, someone strange. I was innocent and wise, and full of pain. Now that I’m a woman, everything has changed. Once, when I was searching, somewhere out of reach, far away, in a place I could not find, or heart obey. Now that I’m a woman, everything is strange.” – Amalthea from The Last Unicorn.